Gresham/Barlow District 6th Grade Track Championship

Thursday May 13th, 2010 was the Gresham/Barlow School District 6th Grade Championship Track Meet @ Clear Creek Middle School. In attendance was: Clear Creek Middle School, Dexter McCarty Middle School, Gordon Russell Middle School, Damascus Orient, & West Orient Middle School. The weather was absolutely Perfect!

Maddy ran the final leg of the 4X100M relay. They came from behind to take 1st place! other events: 200M: 1st place 29.67 sec.

100M: 1st place 14 sec.

long jump: 1st place 12 ft. 8 in.

After Maddy ran her 100M. sierra quickly took her to her softball practice. The rest of us packed up and headed over to catch the rest of Cole's baseball game that had been going on at the same time as the meet. Gresham played David Douglas and won. We got there just in time to see Cole bat.

Happy Mother's Day May 9th, 2010

Come Sunday Morning I have to say I was spent. Our busy schedule has kept us going non-stop for the past 5 weeks in a row. This was seriously the first day I got to sleep in to 8am! It felt so good! Sydnee was so sweet, she brought me my favorite Blueberry muffin and chocolate milk in bed for breakfast. Such a sweetheart! Sierra went and picked up Maddy from a birthday party sleepover and the rest of the kids got ready for church with out complaints. After 3 hours of meetings we took Grandma Judy to a late lunch at Red Robin. We had a gift certificate and it worked out perfect. No waiting! ( I know that you are all thinking how sinful of us to go on Sunday... well.. I did not have to cook and there was no mess at my house at all! so there!)Then we came back and had Coconut Cream pie for dessert out on our deck. The weather was absolutely gorgeous!
Steven with his Mom Judy, Sydnee, Cole, Sierra, Presley and Maddy

Steven and his Mommy!

The beautiful 2 dozen white and red roses we gave to Judy

Our Family: Maddy, Sierra, Sydnee, Cole, Steven, Presley and Me
Thanks for a wonderful day I love my new purse!

It's pretty awesome having a couple teenage daughters. They know what I like! :)

Judy gave me a beautiful heart teared necklace.. if you look close you can see it on me! I absolutely love it! Thank you Judy!

Presley wrote me this amazing letter inside a card and decorated a box with a picture of her on it filled with hershey's hugs and kisses! I love it!

Sydnee and Presley made me a rose bouquet of hershey kisses at their Acheivement Day activity! YUM!!!
They know i love chocolate!

Cole, again looks just thrilled! He pulled up the sleeves of his shirt to get some sun on the upper part of his arms. Right now he has a 3/4 sleeve tan from his baseball jersey. I asked Cole if he made me a card or wrote me a letter... He stood on the railing of the deck and made a speech instead! It was touching, thank you Cole!

Sierra basking in the sun while it lasts... it seems to only come out on weekends around here.

My Maddy... enjoying all of it!

Neopolitan Legs!

After 30 minutes sitting in the sun Sierra's legs were Pink, She is the strawberry! Sydnee sat in the shade so she is still a nice shade of vanilla! And mine have seen a bit more sun than there's.. chocolate!

Thank you to my sweet husband that does so much for me! I love you and had a wonderful Mother's Day. To all of children... You are the best! I am so blessed to have all of you in my life. You each make me a better person.

To my Mom's, Sharlene and Judy! I love you and hope you both had a great day!

And to all of my sister's , sister-in-laws, friends, Aunties and Grandma's I hope this day was special for you too!

Cheers to all the Mother's in the world!

Youth Temple Trip May 8, 2010

Saturday May 8th, 2010 Our ward took the youth to the Portland Temple to do baptism's for the Dead. We got the late time slot. Traffic was horrible getting there. We barely made it there in time for our session. What normally takes 35 minutes took us an hour.I snapped a picture of the girls before we went in because I knew after it would be dark out.
We only had 3 girls attend. Kiara, Sierra and Madison. Next to her is Shelli Acton

Me with the girls.

Sierra and I... it kinda looks like we are posing for our engagement picture. We look ridiculous. Our large bags... ya think we would have set them down for the picture. We were a bit pressed for time.

We had 6 YM attend and another Sister in the ward also did the baptisms.

Brody,Lance,Sierra,Kiara,Madison & Shelli

Back row: Ryan, Kari,Cole, Morgan and me.

We waited and waited for the other leaders in cluding our Bishop to come out but they went out the other side and by then they had left. So we did not get a picture of our whole group :(

GHS vs DDHS May 10th, 2010

Monday May 10th, 2010. My parents flew in from AZ. to visit for 10 days. First event is attending Cole's Baseball game against David Douglas high school. Gresham played a great game. Cole got 2 great hits. His first time up to bat he cracked inbetween 1st and second base and right past the right fielder. One of Gresham's Coaches was not there so no on was coaching first base to tell him to go to second.. he ran thru and realized the ball was way out in the fiels he then turned and took second... He couk=ld have easily gotten a triple out of it. He held up at second.
They tried to pick him off. He must have dove back to second base 5 times before he finally stole 3rd.

They tried to pick him off at 3rd too.. but he finally stole home

His second time up to bat he hit it between 3rd base and shortstop and got a single. Both his hits were RBI's. He never had a ball hit to him in the field. No body did for that matter. Our pitcher struck most of them out or they hit the ball just in the in field and easy outs.

It was a great game. (Cole got walked his 3rd time up to bat.)
Grandma And Grandpa Merrill trying to stay warm.

It was a bit cool out. Especially since they just came from 97 degrees and our high that day was 56!

Presley looks so cute in Grandpa's hat!

After the game Sierra and Grandma were trying to pose on the bleachers

Syd taking the pictures of Grandma loosing her balance

Here is a pose she could manage

Sierra and Syd!

LOVE IT!!!

Syd's shades are upside down.. special!

Friday May 7th, 2010 Baseball game in Sandy

Friday Gresham played a practice game against Sandy High School. The same team they had played 3 times this week. Cole had a good game. He got a single off a nice bunt.
Cole played right field. Several balls were hit out to him.

He caught every one!

Thank goodness!

It had rained the night before and the ground was still wet in areas. There was a steep hill to come down to get to the field and Presley was running. Her feet went right out from under her and she slid down on her bumm. She was none to happy. It knocked the wind out of her.

It was hard not to laugh, it looked so comical but she was in tears so I had to refrain. Sydnee however did not. She laughed and laughed. That didn't go over well with Presley.

Thank goodness for spray and wash and oxy-clean!

Thursday May 6th, 2010 Maddy's 4th Track Meet

On Thursday May 6th, Maddy had her 4th track meet. As you can see the sun actually came out and it was a gorgeous afternoon. Perfect for a Track Meet.Maddy ran the final leg of the 4X100M relay. They took 1st!

200M: 30.2 sec. 1st place

100M: 14 sec. 1st place

long jump: 13 ft. 1 in. 1st place

We all enjoyed watching her compete.
Maddy hung with us inbetween her events!

Sierra had my camera for a bit... this is a few pics I found!

Peace Bra!!!

Thumbs up!

Okay, They were teasing Syd that she was a bully, then Presley came up and they started teasing her that she was a bully too. Presley Did not take that well at all. She ran off pouting! When she saw me take a picture of her she ran and bulled me down. LOL

Sitting in the grass at the school there were weeds growing up thru the grass. Syd starts picking them and asks if it is wheat. I decided to take a picture of her wheat and she tried grabbing it from me before I could. Syd comes up with the most comical things. I just love that girl!

Portland Air National Guard Tour

For our joint activity Wednesday night we took the youth to The Portland Air National Guard. Thanks to Bro. Haner having connections and hooking us up. What an experience to get to go inside the hangars and see where they work on the engines that power the F-15's. We learned that each of the engines are valued at an estimated $1.2 million dollars. And there are 2 engines on each F-15. Oh my!!!Our tour was guided by Master Sergeant Brockman. He went into detail of the genetics of the engines and the power each one has.
Our Young Women and Young Men were very intuitive and asked alot of questions.
We were going to be going out on the Tarmac and the temperature outside was about 44 degrees so we had the youth bring jackets to stay warm. Well we were in the hangars for awhile first so they began to shed their layers and of course when they do this they want someone else to hold their stuff. Being that Myself and Jo-Lynn, my 1st councilor had kids there naturally they come to us to dump their stuff off with. Jo-Lynn's daughter was first to bring her heavy coat for her mommy to hold. After about 10 minutes Jo-Lynn commented on how heavy it was and I stated how my daughter brought her large bag in and was surprised she hadn't asked me to hold it yet. I look over at her and she does not have her bag. Puzzled I began to look around to see where she put it.

This is where I found it. She had asked the YM's President Jared Mueller to hold it for her. He even posed for a picture. What a nice guy and a good sport.
Next we got to go out on the Flight Line to watch 3 of the F-15's take off.

Master Sergeant Brockman gave each person ear plugs and off we went.

We got to see how they do all of the routine checks on the jets before they go up. They spare no little detail.

Maddy out on the tarmac waiting to see them take off.

Sierra, Macie, Maddy (in the background is Nick and Travis)

We also got to see the cockpit of the F-15

What an amazing piece of equipment, everything at the fingertip of the pilot. The F-15 carries 30,000 lbs of fuel. Shoots rounds of 940 bullets in less than 10 seconds and the bullets weigh approximately 1 lb. each. We were given so much information in such a short amount of time that I cannot remember all of it.

The only picture that I have gotten of Cole in forever. This guy just won't let me take his picture.

Macie, Sierra and Maddy in the Hangar
Our Group...

from front left: Caleb, Lance, Laurissa, Maddy, Me & Heidi

2nd row: Morgan, Brianna, Travis, Nick, Madison, Madison, Macie, Sierra, Jo-Lynn, Kiara

top row: Bishop McGill, Cole, Jeremy Frey, Master Sergeant Brockman, Don Haner, Jared Mueller, Kelvin Brown & Cavan Dover

Thanks again to Don Haner for arranging this tour. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity.